Rigoletto review – powerful update, led by stellar duo, is a revelation

Grand theatre, Leeds
Underlining the otherness of Verdi’s court jester by making him a black man is a masterstroke by Femi Elufowoju Jr, the leads sung with potency by Eric Greene and Jasmine Habersham

The big idea in Femi Elufowoju Jr’s reading of Rigoletto for Opera North is so powerful and so current and at the same time so true to the artistic force of Verdi’s setting of Victor Hugo that it is somehow surprising that it has taken until now for someone to put it on the stage.

Elufowoju Jr’s production rediscovers the otherness of Rigoletto and his daughter Gilda for the 21st century. In Hugo and Verdi, the title role is a 16th-century hunchback court jester, who keeps his daughter hidden away to protect her from philandering aristocrats. Here, however, Rigoletto’s otherness is as a black man with a vulnerable daughter existing on the margins of an entitled bunch of rich white party animals who cannot be trusted around young women. Sound familiar? The political topicality is never explicitly stated, but it gives the idea searing extra credibility.

Rigoletto is at Grand theatre, Leeds, until 19 February, then touring until 1 April.

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